Glorious Saturn

[John]

Just back in from a very nice session observing firstly Jupiter and lately Saturn.

This is my 1st decent go at Saturn this opposition and it did not disappoint. I was using my Tak FC100 at 180x. The views of Saturn and it's moons and rings were sharply defined. The Cassini Division was very clear all around the ring system. Saturns disk showed quite complex banding with the equatorial region quite a bit brighter than the Northern equatorial belt and the regions to the north of that. The south side of the equatorial region was defined by the shadow cast by the rings around the planet. At times I had glimpses of the C or Crepe ring. The brightness difference between and A and B ring system was quite marked. 5 moons were on show, Titan, Iapetus, Tethys, Rhea and Dione. I had a good look for Enceladus but was not convinced that I could make that one out - it's mag 11.9 reduced to around 12.3 by atmospheric extinction so a fair bit fainter than the faintest of the other 5 that I could see.

Overall a very satisfying 40 minutes of observing. What a beautiful sight - quite moving really

[niallk]

Sounds great John, especially with the low alt!

[Geoff Barnes]

Just goes to show the quality of the Tak John, you were seeing the same details as I was a few nights ago at 375x with the SW Dob and with Saturn at 74 degrees aloft and superb seeing. Though I did catch glimpses of Enceladus as well as the Encke Minima which I guess would probably be beyond the reach of many scopes at such low elevations in the UK.

[chiltonstar]

Sounds like an excellent session John.

Saturn has to be the most glorious sight in the heavens, even when viewed through all the atmospheric mush this year!

Chris

[John]

2 hours ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Just goes to show the quality of the Tak John, you were seeing the same details as I was a few nights ago at 375x with the SW Dob and with Saturn at 74 degrees aloft and superb seeing. Though I did catch glimpses of Enceladus as well as the Encke Minima which I guess would probably be beyond the reach of many scopes at such low elevations in the UK.

I've seen Enceledus with my larger scopes Geoff and at better oppositions. When Saturn has been higher my 12 inch has shown the Encke Minima under good conditions.

Enceladus is within the grasp of the Tak 100 but if it is too close to Saturn it can get lost in the glare from the main planet so I'll try again when the moon is at greater elongation from the planet.

I enjoy trying to spot the fainter moons of the distant planets though they are just tiny points of light. Triton at Neptune is possible with my 130mm and I've often seen it with my 12 inch. In principle 4 moons of Uranus are within my grasp too but so far I've just managed two of those (Titania and Oberon).

Triton is the most distant rocky / icy world that I've been able to view, thus far.

I have not timed things well in this hobby though - I probably now own the best gear that I've ever owned for planetary observing and I'm confident in using it, but for a few years the planets or greatest interest are poorly positioned from where I'm based in the UK.

Perhaps with hindsight I would have been better investing the money in a time share somewhere way down south for a few years rather than buy expensive scopes ! 

 

[Ags]

1 hour ago, John said:

Encke Minima

I think it used to be a gap? 😕

[John]

28 minutes ago, Ags said:

I think it used to be a gap? 😕

There are both features within the A ring. The gap is very, very, very hard to observe. The minima is a darkening of the A ring and still challenging:

http://ejamison.net/encke.html

Sometimes the two features are confused in discussions.